The Assembly convened today for the first time since the hell-storm on Friday, when the GOP leadership called the chamber to session five minutes before schedule, prompting outrage from Democrats who rushed to the floor to find the Republicans attempting to pass the budget repair bill without them.
Today, after Rep. Andy Jorgenson motioned to remove the Speaker Pro Tem, who had gaveled the Friday session to order, for breaking the rules, other Democrats, including Rep. Mark Pocan and Dem Leader Peter Barca recommended forgiveness, and Jorgenson withdrew his motion.
What has followed has been a series of lectures on legislative procedure and courtesy, a tradition Democrats say Republicans are conveniently trampling on in their furor to do away with another great Wisconsin tradition: collective bargaining.
Rep. Chris Danou has spoken several times on the subject, first discussing his experience with unfair labor relations as a police officer. Cops in his unit weren't allowed to complain about their superiors, he said, even if they knew their bosses were engaged in illegal activity.
"We had to have our children and wives do that," he said. "They had to come testify."
Later, echoing an argument that has become popular in Democratic circles, Danou accused Walker of aiming to turn Wisconsin into a "low-wage, low-skill state like Mississippi."
"[Southern states] have some advantages. For one thing they don't have snow. That's the number one thing that's wrong with Wisconsin's business climate, it's snow. We're not a coastal state, we don't have oil. What we have is people. The number one asset we have in our state is our people."
According to one legislator, the amount of amendments being offered by the minority will likely prevent the bill from being voted on today.
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